Illuminated
by Temperence
Summary: Two runaway girls. Two murdered families. The girls are found dead shortly after their families are killed. When a third girl goes missing the BAU is called in to find the connections and one team member may get too involved.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

It was 5:30 AM on a Monday morning and Emily Prentiss was already making coffee.

JJ had called her 30 minutes ago to tell her that they had a new case that required immediate attention. That never was a good sign.

While the machine was still brewing the coffee, Emily went through her ready-bag one more time. She wanted to make sure that she hadn't forgotten anything. When she was sure that everything was where it belonged she decided to take some extra chocolate with her. Chocolate was always a good choice.

Finally the coffee machine stopped rattling and Emily poured some into her travel-mug.

She then slipped into her jacket, grabbed her ready-bag and keys and finally headed down to the parking lot.

It was time for work.

…

When she entered the bullpen 20 minutes later it was already 6 o'clock and everyone else seemed to be in the briefing room. Emily cursed herself for being late, but even though it was still early the streets had already been flooded with cars and morning traffic had been slow as ever.

Slipping into the briefing room she mumbled a short 'Sorry' and sat down next to Morgan and Rossi. They just nodded a short hello and continued a conversation that appeared to have something to do with a case they were currently observing

Letting her eyes drift through the room Emily noticed that she was not the last person to arrive to the meeting. Her unit chief Aaron Hotchner was nowhere to be seen which was rather odd as Hotch always was on time.

Just when she was starting to worry, her train of thought was interrupted when Hotch entered the room. "Early meeting with Strauss." he said in an apologetic tone. "I'm sorry."

Now that everyone had gathered around the round table JJ stood up to hand them each a file and turned towards the board.

"Two months ago Sharon Miller, 16, disappeared from her family home. She left a note saying that she couldn't take it any more and that she wanted to relief her family of the burden she caused them. She also wrote that she didn't want them to go to the police or to look for her. Of course the family called the local PD to file a missing persons report.

Two weeks later however the family was found killed in something what appeared to be a home invasion. The parents had been shot and the children had been suffocated.  
Four days later their runaway daughter Sharon was found dead in an abandoned warehouse.

She seems to have been tortured and she was malnourished and dehydrated.

Three weeks ago another girl vanished. Lisa-Marie Jenkins, 17, also disappeared form her family home." JJ said, pinning another picture to the board.  
"She also left a note similar to the one Sharon did. You have both originals in your files.  
Lisa-Marie's family was found murdered one and a half weeks after her disappearance. They were killed the same way as the Millers. Their murder was also staged as a home invasion.  
Lisa-Marie's body was discovered in an empty parking lot four days later. Her body has been mutilated just as Sharon's."

"So why are we being called in?" Morgan asked.

"Well the local PD doesn't have any suspects yet and the unsub hasn't left any physical evidence yet. Adding to their lacking knowledge and progress there has been filed another missing persons report. Two days ago another girl vanished just after school. She left a similar note to that the other two girls left behind and the local sheriff requested our help to prevent another murder." JJ explained putting another picture on the board.

"Have the locals found any connection between the homicides, yet?" Rossi asked looking through the file in front of him.

"Other than the matching bullets they pulled from the parents bodies and the similarities between the notes they haven't, but two runaways who are found dead shortly after their families have been killed would be one hell of a coincidence." Looking around the room JJ sat down and asked them if they had any further questions concerning the hard facts.

"What strikes me as odd is that the girls all write the notes on their own and disappear. What does the unsub do for such a long time with them and why are there time differences between the disappearance of the girls and the murder of the parents? The first was killed about two weeks after their daughter disappeared. The others only one and a half." Morgan mused.

"What did the unsub do with the girls for such a long time?"

"Well maybe the unsub didn't take them directly after they ran." Emily suggested. "Maybe they were taken sometime later. Wouldn't they have been in a worse state concerning their health if the unsub would have had them the whole time considering how he treated them? I mean the stomach content showed that they hadn't eaten in a few days. If the unsub had them for weeks they would have died sooner without food or water. So maybe the unsub only had them for a few days."

"But why take the girls later? Did he target them before or after they ran away and why are their notes so similar? Maybe-"

But before Reid could finish Hotch stood up and grabbed his file.

"Why won't we just discuss this on the jet? We will leave in 20 minutes. Get your stuff and get ready."

…

_Authors Note:_

_I hope you enjoyed reading the story so far. It is my first 'real' fanfic and maybe the characters will be a little 'out-of-character'. English isn't my mother tongue so there are probably various mistakes - I am really sorry!  
_

_This story is set somewhere in season 5, before Emily or JJ were forced to leave, so there won't be any spoilers for season 6. But I don't think there will be too spoilers at all._

_I would love to get some reviews and/or some suggestions or anything else (: And I hope you'll continue reading! xx  
_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

20 minutes later they had all gathered in the jet.

Prentiss was teasing Morgan about one of his weekend pick ups, Reid was playing chess and Rossi and JJ were chatting about a little Henry.

A few minutes into flight however they were interrupted by Hotch who was clearing his throat to get their attention. "Okay everyone. Let's talk about the case again, shall we?

Reid, what about the girls? I believe I interrupted you before. Please continue."

"Well, I was thinking about why and how the unsub chooses his victims and when he actually gets them. It is rather unlikely that two of his victims were runaways by coincidence.

So the question is why he targets them and when he actually starts targeting them. The fact that he kill the families after their families should tell us something about his focus."

"He is clearly focused on the girls." Prentiss observed. "It is only about them. It would explain why the parents are killed in execution style when Sharon and Lisa-Marie were tortured and kept for a few days at least."

"Exactly. Another important aspect are the notes. I have looked them through and I have found a very distinct pattern. Each girl talked about being a burden for their families and each of them asked them not to look for them. However none of them said anything about involving the police or not. They also used similar vocabulary and phrases which leads me to the conclusion that either the girls were connected or that they were connected with our unsub because statistically similarities like that aren't really possible." Reid finished his little speech looking at Rossi who was just about to say something when a sudden beeping tone startled them all.

The face of their technical assistant Penelope Garcia had popped up on the laptop in front of them.

"Good morning my lovelies!", she said giving everyone a bright smile. "I have been looking through the background of both Sharon's and Lisa-Marie's families background and so far I haven't come up with anything. Looks like they all have clean records. I couldn't even find any parking tickets. Seems like they are model citizens. Any specific requests on what I should do next except my routine checks?"

"Thank you Garcia. There actually is something I want you to do. Please put a focus on the girls and find out everything you can about them. Especially anything concerning two weeks before their disappearance until they were found. Try to track them if you can going through CCTV or anything else you can think of. It is important that we find out when he took them."

Nodding to Hotch's instructions Garcia started typing. "I'll call you as soon as I find anything. Garcia out.", she said disconnecting with yet another beep.

Now that he had the attention Rossi brought up the point he wanted to mention before. "About the latest girl to go missing, I think we should place her family in protective custody. We do not know how much time she or her family has since the time gap differs in the first two cases. Given what happened before it would only be logical to do so."

"The local PD has already tried convincing them, but the father insisted on staying since there might be a chance that his daughter will come home again and he doesn't want her to find an abandoned home if she does. Apparently there is no persuading them, but I have told the Sheriff that I will try to talk him out of this or at least make him place the other two children in protective custody." JJ said looking slightly concerned.

"Well that sounds like a plan, but before you do that would you come with me to the first scene? The sheriff will meet us there and he already knows you. Reid and Morgan, I want you two at the second scene. Go through everything again and see if you can find anything new. Focus on the girls. Oh and Reid, I also want you working a geological profile if you can. Morgan and Prentiss, I want you two at the newest scene. Talk to the family about their daughter and try to find out as much as possible. Wait for JJ to talk about protective custody.

We will all meet back around 13 o'clock if we can. If you find anything update me via cell as usual." Hotch said giving them each a task.

"And now relax. We are going to land in about an hour and you all had a rather short night."

_Author's note:_

_Sorry for the late update, I didn't quite know whether to write this chapter or not, but I felt that it was necessary so I added it to the story even though it is just talk. (:_

_I hope that you enjoyed reading this story so far. Any reviews etc. are welcome! I'll try to update faster next time and then it is hopefully going to be a little more interesting. xx_


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